Once a promising futuristic industry, digital health is merging into mainstream medicine. Now in the limelight, conversations around how these digital tools should be validated are starting to take place.

But for startups, getting validation often means securing money and partners, creating potential barriers for young startups. Last night at Partners HealthCare Pivot Labs digital health event, industry experts dished on the why, when and how of validation.

A good idea is just an idea—until it finds champions to make it a real-life innovation. Institutions across Partners HealthCare are energized to embrace that spark. That was the vision behind the launch of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) Digital Innovation Hub (iHub) in 2013, when 72% of surveyed BWH employees said they had an innovative idea but didn’t know how to make it a reality.

For patients with moderate to severe asthma, it’s not uncommon to see a pulmonologist or allergist for routine follow-up appointments at three- to six-month intervals. But a lot can happen in between those visits, and patients don’t always call their provider when their symptoms worsen – sometimes misjudging a significant deterioration of breathing as allergies, a cold or simply not bad enough to merit the hassle of trying to book another appointment.

Two innovators are confident that window of opportunity could be pried open with digital health tools. David Bates, MD, chief of General Internal Medicine and Primary Care and medical director of the Partners HealthCare Center for Clinical and Quality Analysis, and Bob Rudin, information scientist at the RAND Corporation, have teamed up to create an app that can help patients track their symptoms between appointments.